Travel Documents you Must Not FORGET
Travel Documents
Travelling to another country, can sometimes be as stressful as exciting. There are so many things to do prior your departure, that can make you will feel overwhelmed.
One important additional stress is the amount of paperwork needed. As a European, travelling inside the E.U. community can seem easy, and it is significantly easier than going to another continent. For us, the only legal document needed is the I.D. card. That seems normal and easy not to forget or to have a little anxiety before.
But, for foreigners, or for us, travelling outside the continent, even though it may seem like two flights away, the preparation before is at another level. Because, in case you have missed something, you can be turned around at the border, and not have your access granted. That is a type of situation that nobody ever wants.
I have created a list of paperwork (documents) to check before each trip or even before considering the trip.
Six months before
Check your passport validity
If you are considering a trip, this should be one of the first things to check even before booking. The passport validity is one key factor that will determine if you are allowed or not to enter a country. Most countries require that your passport should be valid at least six months after you return to your home country.
The best way is to check your passport from time to time and to make an appointment to renew it, if you see that you have less than six months of validity left. If your trip is in less than three months, go check it and make an appointment if needed.
How to calculate the six months validity:
Example
Imagine that you will arrive in Dubai on January 1st. You will have fun there till January 10th, because that is when you will have your flight home. So, if your returning ticket is dated 10 January, that is the day of the minimum 6 months period of validity starts. For those exact dates, when you will arrive in Dubai, you will have to have a passport validity of 6 months and at least eleven days.
Some countries have different rules, like six months from the day you entered their country. Others will have slightly different rule for foreigners from different countries. It is not a standard, so better to check the immigration rules for the country you wish to travel to.
Visa Validity
Period wise, there are 3 types of tourist’s visas. The easy one is the one that you get at the destination airport. It is called visa on arrival. Another one, is one that you have to get from your home country before your departure. Its validity will be according to your flight tickets. So, if you arrive on January 1st and leave on January 10th, your visa will be valid 1st of January -10th of January. You will also have to check the exact documents needed for you to get this visa. Some countries have really high demands like: house ownership document/legal renting document, yearly bank account statement, last study degree etc.
The third one and also the most problematic one in terms of organizing is the long-term tourist visa. This visa will have a validity from 1 year to 10 years and will be attached to your passport. In the moment that you will check your passport validity, you will need to check also the visa validity.
For example, if your passport will expire next year, but you still have a tourist visa for another 4 years, you will have two options. The first one is to travel with two passports, the one with the visa and the new one. This is only available if the visa code is different and doesn’t depend on your passport number. The other option is that after you get your new passport, you have to send to the embassy the old passport and the new passport, for them to apply the new visa on.
Vaccination certificates
Not talking about the COVID-19 vaccination certificates. I am talking about all: hepatitis, yellow fever, poliomyelitis etc. Several countries still deal with very difficult epidemics of some of the above-mentioned diseases and going there will represent a risk for your health. For those countries in particular, you will need to have an international vaccination certificate, a little yellow booklet with all your official vaccinations registered there. This is a mandatory requirement to enter those countries.
One month before
Get yourself a travel insurance
Having medical and travel insurance is extremely important, if not mandatory. If something that requires medical observation will happen, you will not have to worry about going in a hospital and paying the bills. The best time to get a travel insurance will be approximatively a month prior to your departure.
Car service
If you are travelling by car, go to a service and check your car. It is necessary to be sure that everything works perfect and you will not have unpleasant surprises on the road. After you have done the car service checkup, don’t forget to get a copy of the service records, to have it with you on the road. If something will happen, they won’t blame it on your car for being faulty.
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Car registration documents
The same way you have to provide your own passport or id for travel, also your car needs to have valid documents and registration number. Check them at least one month before, to make sure everything is alright and also to have time to get new documents if it is necessary.
Legal permission to get out of the country with the car
This only applies if the car is not registered on your name. If you want to travel with your dad’s car or you have a leasing, you’ll need their legal permission to get their car out of the country. Some countries will not accept that legal document written in English or the native language of your home country. You will have to provide them an official translated document in their language.
Car insurance
You need a car insurance every day, but if you don’t pay attention and the insurance is not valid anymore, you will not be allowed to cross the border. It may happen to be a typing mistake by the insurance company (real story, it happened) or it just is expired. Also check if your insurance covers the country you are travelling to, even the countries just transited.
One day before
Flight details
Print all your flight details and also save them to your phone. Sometimes, at passport control they will need to see your flight details. It is better to have them on an electronic device, but also on paper. It all depend on the country you are travelling to.
Hotel booking confirmation
In airports or at some border crossing points, sometimes it will be necessary to prove that you have accommodation in that country and for the exact period you are declaring to stay in that country. If you travel by car, or even at passport control, in a transiting only country, you will have to show your hotel bookings of your destination country, to prove them that you are just transiting.
Bonus:
Check all the above-mentioned documents the day you are leaving, prepare them, take them and triple check not to forget anything.
This article was written from experience, as a frequent flyer and also as a person that crossed the border many times with the car. We have seen unfortunate events at the airport, with people that were denied boarding because of the passport validity or because of missing documents. Try to have the timeline mentioned in your mind and as the time passes, start to triple check everything. Traveling prepared is…Travelicious.